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The Greek tragedy is reaching its climax. The discussions between Greece and its European creditors broke down over the weekend, with the two sides still at an impasse. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras balked at deeper austerity cuts to the Greek economy, cuts that are a prerequisite for further help from Berlin and Brussels. As a result, Greece is approaching the precipice. With a massive debt payment due on June 30 to the IMF, Greece could default. The extent of the fallout is anybody’s guess, but Greece could see the value of its bonds plummet, putting its banks in crisis,...

The numerous pipeline projects already in the works are more than sufficient to handle the increased natural gas demands in the U.S., with a federal push to limit carbon emissions, according to a new report from the Advanced Energy Economy Institute that urges for more clean power solutions. The new report attempts to counter claims by the North American Electric Reliability Corp. and other stakeholders that contend the nation’s increasing reliance on cheap natural gas for electricity will require more pipeline and power generation capacity. Such critics say the problems will be exacerbated and the nation’s grid reliability will suffer...

Still grappling with market uncertainty, 51 percent of global hiring managers decreased their hiring efforts in the past three months, according to Rigzone’s latest global hiring survey. Additionally, 13 percent have completely frozen their recruitment plans. Since oil prices bottomed out in mid-March, the industry has seen slight increases in oil price per barrel, but not enough for oil and gas companies to feel comfortable enough to actively increase hiring plans in the near future, the survey revealed. In fact, 54 percent of global hiring managers said they believe job cuts are more likely in the next six months and...

U.S. operable atmospheric crude distillation (CDU) capacity increased by 0.2% in 2014, reaching 18.0 million barrels per calendar day (b/d) according to EIA's recently released annual Refinery Capacity Report (Figure 1). This was the second consecutive year of modest capacity growth following the 2.9% increase in 2012 that resulted from the restart of East Coast refineries that had closed in 2011. The capacities of secondary units that support heavy crude processing and production of ultra-low sulfur diesel and gasoline, including thermal cracking (coking), catalytic hydrocracking, and hydrotreating/desulfurization, also increased. The refinery capacity reported for the start of 2015 includes expansions...

A study commissioned by the National Black Chamber of Commerce, which represents 2.1 million black-owned businesses in the United States, found that the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Power Plan would increase black poverty by 23 percent and cause the loss of 7 million jobs for black Americans by 2035. The study also found that the EPA' plan would increase Hispanic poverty by 26 percent and cause the loss of 12 million jobs for Hispanic Americans by 2035. The EPA proposed the Clean Power Plan on June 2, 2014 to cut carbon emissions from power plants. ... There was a...

BISMARCK, N.D. Tribal leaders from an oil-prolific portion of North Dakota's Fort Berthold Reservation say they can't count on federal or state regulators — or their own tribal government — to monitor the boom, so they are moving to do it themselves. Industry officials question whether the tribe has the jurisdiction to impose such rules and warned the change could severely slow oil production on the reservation, which accounts for about a third of the state's 1.1 million barrels of daily oil production. Lone Fight and other tribal leaders from the region said they are fed up with everything from...

America's grain stocks running short By Robert Pore robert.pore@theindependent.com Print Story | e-mail Story | Visit Forums Global demand for grain and oilseeds is at record levels, causing the nation's grain stocks to reach critically low levels, according to Purdue University agricultural economist Chris Hurt. With a weak U.S. dollar and global demand so high, foreign buyers are outbidding domestic buyers for American grain, Hurt said. "Food consumers worldwide are going to have to pay more," Hurt said. "We ended 2007 with our monthly inflation rate on food nearly 5 percent higher. I think we'll see times in 2008 where...

Saudi Arabia and Russia have signed an agreement to cooperate on nuclear energy development, a Saudi government body in charge of such projects said. The government body, the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy, announced the cooperation deal on its website on Thursday but gave no further details. Saudi-owned al-Arabiya TV, citing unnamed sources, said the kingdom planned to build 16 nuclear reactors in which Russia would play a significant role in operating them. The Saudi atomic and renewable energy body has already signed nuclear cooperation deals with countries able to build reactors, including the United States, France,...

End austerity: it’s cheating us all; Jobs not Trident; No cuts; Defy Tory rule; Cut war not welfare; Stop fracking; a Living Wage for mothers; and, The Pope gets it, why can’t you? With the slogans emblazoned on banners, posters and flags, anti-austerity marchers shouted slogans, sang, and beat drums, as they walked through London in what is being called the biggest protest march that the city has seen. The ‘End Austerity Now’ demonstration saw participation by an estimated crowd of between 70,000 and 250,000, all coming together to protest against cuts imposed due to austerity, the threats to the...

With petroleum prices down 50 percent over the past year, many analysts and pundits are predicting the end of America’s shale oil boom. Recent headlines include: “Oil Price Fall Forces North Dakota to Consider Austerity” (New York Times);[1] “Oil Price Drop Hurts Spending on Business Investments” (Wall Street Journal);[2] “The American Oil Boom Won’t Last Long at $65 per Barrel” (Bloomberg Business);[3] and “The Shale Oil Revolution Is in Danger” (Fortune)[4]. High prices, shale skeptics argue, created a bubble of activity in unsustainably expensive shale fields. As shale-related businesses contract, consolidate, and adjust to the new price regime, a major...

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin said after Friday's talks with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras that a prospective Russian natural gas pipeline should help Greece service its debt, but the Kremlin said the question of direct Russian financial aid to Greece was not discussed. Speaking of the pipeline deal at a meeting with top executives of global news agencies, including The Associated Press, which began nearly three hours behind schedule at around midnight, Putin said he saw no support for the Greeks from the EU. "If EU wants Greece to pay its debts it should be...

1. A constitutional amendment abolishing the Electoral College and substituting in its place a direct election of the president by popular vote. 2. A constitutional amendment abolishing the two term limit on the presidency. 3. A constitutional amendment mandating that 5% of GDP be spent on the Pentagon’s budget, with safeguards that the money actually be spent on soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines and the equipment they need, and not on absurd “tack-ons” like “green energy” production for military bases. Rebuild the military and detach it from the GOP, and do so before a coup becomes a reality in the...

John Holdren, President Barack Obama’s top science and technology advisor, said at a White House summit on clean energy on Tuesday that a “global low-carbon economy” by the year 2050 means that “cars, trucks and planes” will be powered by “electricity, biofuels or hydrogen.” “As we all know, a global low-carbon economy in 2050 is going to have to meet the energy needs of 9 or 10 billion people using technologies that will have to be more advanced than the technologies that are in place today,” he said. “Buildings, agriculture, machines must be dramatically more energy-efficient.” “Cars, trucks and planes...

The oil markets could be about to enter another round of soft prices. The OPEC decision on June 5 to leave its collective target unchanged was widely expected. As a result, oil prices barely flinched. But there are other reasons to think that oil prices could see a bit of a downturn in the coming weeks. First, OPEC revealed in its latest monthly oil report that it is still producing well above its stated 30 million barrel per day target. Saudi Arabia’s output inched up another 25,000 barrels per day in May from the month before in a further sign...

John Gallagher pinches a pod from the long-stemmed plant in the greenhouse next to his office, cracks it open and pops the BB-sized seeds into his mouth. "They're not going to compete with peanuts, but they're good," said Gallagher, a University of Delaware researcher. While the seashore mallow might be handy for a quick snack, the sturdy plant has provided Gallagher food for thought in addressing a smorgasbord of environmental problems, from global warming to the disappearance of coastal farmland. Gallagher, a marine biosciences professor, says the seeds are a promising source of biodiesel, with an oil composition similar to...

Elon Musk our billionaire, whose Stimulus funded Tesla Motors, Solarandra City and (only option to Russia, NASA is out) Space X has received $4.9 billion in FedSlush. Is Elon Musk a billionaire welfare queen of Federal grants, discounted loans, tax breaks, government RICO & Carbon credits? Tesla is set to receive an incentive worth $1.3 billion from the state of Nevada. Anyone who buys a Tesla gets a $7,500 federal income tax credit, Californians receive an additional rebate of $2,500 from the state. In all, Tesla Motors Inc. has received close to $2.391 billion in form of government subsidies. SolarCity,...

The Front-Runners In Fusion Energy Submitted by Tyler Durden on 06/12/2015 15:14 -0400 Reality     inShare1   Submitted by Michael McDonald via OilPrice.com,Fusion power has been something of a holy grail in the energy field for decades. The idea of harnessing the same energy that powers the sun naturally excites many. At the same time, despite decades of research, fusion energy has yet to come close to being a reality. The only significant practical advance in fusion reactions has been the development of thermonuclear weapons like the hydrogen bomb which, for all intents and purposes, serve the same purpose...

https://twitter.com/zerohedge/status/609341858045497344 https://twitter.com/TraderStef/status/609355146842275840 https://twitter.com/JAFF3/status/609343992803774464 https://twitter.com/russian_market/status/609341880623591424 The bank runs (and capital controls) begin. Macedonia Central Bank Governor Bogov states: *GREEK BANKS IN MACEDONIA CAN’T WITHDRAW CASH: BOGOV*MACEDONIAN BANKS PROTECTED IN CASE OF GREXIT: BOGOV How long before the rest of Europe follows suit and a bank holiday is declared Monday to "Cyprus" depositors? He further added: *MACEDONIAN CENTRAL BANK SEES MAJOR RISKS FROM POLITICAL CRISIS http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-06-12/macedonia-central-bank-blocks-greek-bank-withdrawals-case-grexit Macedonia Central Bank blocks Greek bank withdrawals FXStreet (Córdoba) - Macedonian Central Bank's Governor Dimitar Bogov has stated that Greek banks are not able to withdraw cash. According to Bogov, this withdrawal halt is protection against...

Alaska's crude oil production has declined from 1.8 million barrels per day (MMb/d) in 1991 to 0.5 MMb/d in 2014, and it is expected to continue declining through 2040. Almost 75% of Alaska's crude oil production from 1990 to 2012 was from the Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk River fields in the central North Slope, which respectively produced 4.9 billion and 1.7 billion barrels of crude oil over this period. Crude oil production in Alaska is sensitive to the challenging environment—including variable ice conditions and limited time without ice coverage—as well as pipeline economics. However, recent conditional approval granted to Royal...

The world’s appetite for crude is making a comeback as economies improve and cheap oil draws out more buyers, the International Energy Agency says. In its monthly oil market report released Thursday, the IEA revised its estimate of daily global oil demand in the first half of the year by 400,000 barrels, as the United States and other developed nations reversed a “long declining, seemingly entrenched, trend to a rising one.” Worldwide, daily demand was 93.3 million barrels for the last six months, up 1.6 million from the same period last year. And the IEA believes demand could rise to...